Teresa’s story is that she always talked to us damn media (Yes, damn media IS two separate words!) freely back in the Dale days. And why not? Life was good; they had a brand new shop that was the envy of all the teams. They were winning races and going places! I remember talking with her at the shop as she proudly told me how she picked out

the lights and tile and more. Then, Daytona. After that, Teresa kinda backed away from the limelight and maybe justifiably so. Zip ahead to today and it seems she’s gone all Howard Hughes on us and rarely talks to anybody. Put yourself in her shoes. Maybe she done gave more to the racing gods than she really wanted. Maybe she didn’t give it at all. Maybe it was just flat out taken from her.

Now, I ain’t no cheerleader for Teresa; I’m just trying to figure out what’s happening over there on Rt. 3. But I do know this – even after Jr. cleans out his locker and says his goodbyes, Teresa Earnhardt will be sitting in high cotton. Here’s why.

Just about all of those other business decisions she made in the past seven years are coming into play. She is in partnership with Richard Childress on motors. Think about that. Does any top team actually need to partner up with anyone else? Not really. But, as I found out in grammar school when I kept losing my lunch money to some cat named Slick, two heads are better than one. (Especially when they were on his coin.) We all saw them Fords ramp up their game when Roush and Yates joined forces tweaking motors. So can a RCR/DEI engine program hurt the Chevy R07 motor? Hell no!

Then there’s Teresa’s deal with Bobby Ginn who doesn’t seem to lacking any money to go racing. You can look around NASCAR land and see the big teams partnering up for financial reasons. And now they all have hyphenated names like those fancy movie stars or women libbers. So Teresa’s right as rain, there, too. And it’s hard to remember that with all the fussing about Jr, but it was the other DEI car that made the chase. (Thumbs up to Martin and that team. Good work, kids!) That proves that nobody working at DEI is being held captive, instead, they’re cranking out badass race cars.

That brings us to 2008. There might just be FOUR teams coming out of DEI/Ginn next season. What can we expect to see from this team that could have as many cars as Hendrick? DEI can have stronger motors. DEI will have Mark Martin and Aric Almirola driving the #01. Staying put in the #1 is Martin Truex, fresh off his first Chase experience. He’ll get a chance to be the big dog at that shop and he’s ready to hunt, too. They have two other cars. One is the number eight with new colors while the other one’s number has not been released as of today. (What about #15?) We’re talking ahead of the curve potential out the ‘ol wazoo.

Next year, they’ll have the chance to be the old DEI when they were a winner on a much more consistent basis. And if they don’t, all those people that think less of Teresa will likely blame her. But if this new DEI comes out swingin’ and wins like the old DEI, maybe Teresa will invoke her right to some in-your-face trash talk and say she planned it that way. I could totally dig that interview. Even if it ends with, “…and the horse you rode in on!”  

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